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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

iRacing, a confusing answer, and a black flag

While this subject line may seem to have no relevancy to the autism spectrum I assure you it does and looking back on it I can laugh because it is just a classic example of the, "I think therefore you know" line.

I joined iRacing last year after many years of racing on the Xbox. iRacing is a PC motorsports simulator that is a near exact replica of the sport of racing. It's so realistic that iRacing has a method for a person to protest another driver! Gaming has never been so intense!

So, last year my first several races were in the Legends car which race on ovals. The rules are pretty cut and dry as there are two warm-up laps and then the race starts and you keep going until the finish. There are no yellow flags in that series so there are no confusing areas.

After some races on the oval I decided to try the road racing rookie series which is a Pontiac Solstice. This is where our story gets interesting.

During all my first races I was using Xbox Live to communicate with Ryan who was giving me advice by saying, over and over again, "just don't wreck!". As the start time for the Pontiac Solstice race got within a minute I asked a very important question, "Can I jump the start?"

Never before has a simple question led to so much debate. Ryan told me, "No, you can't jump it". How did I take that answer? In a lot of video games it is impossible to jump the start. As the red lights turn on in some games the driver can go full throttle in gear and the car won't move until the race has started. So, from Ryan's answer, I took this as fact.

In my Solstice race the red lights turned on, I shifted into gear and floored it... and instantly rammed the car in front of me. On top of that the spotter in the game notified me that I had been black flagged for jumping the start.

I was furious. "Ryan, you said I couldn't jump the start!" He responded with something along the lines, "I told you that you shouldn't jump the start.

See the issue here? My question was somewhat vague, but I knew what it meant. Because I knew what it meant everyone knew what it meant. The end result was a crumpled front end of my virtual Solstice and a penalty.

This story has been repeated so many times in my life. I will ask a question that can be taken two ways, but I know what it means and whomever answers it usually gives the wrong answer. In my defense Ryan should have said, "Yes you can jump it, but you will get a penalty." In Ryan's defense I should have just known that jumping was possible because iRacing is made by the same guy who made my favorite game ever, Grand Prix Legends.

So the debate continues on. I still, from time-to-time, will still jokingly blame Ryan for that bad race. What needs to be learned from this is that I should ask more precise questions and others should give more precise answers to me. If left in that middle ground I will usually not ask for clarification and I usually take the wrong meaning leading to hijinks and crumpled up virtual Solsti (What is the plural of Solstice? Solsti sound cool, but is porbably incorrect.)

As with most events in my life I am glad this happened because it sheds just a little more light on this thing called Asperger Syndrome. Have I made the same mistake since? Yes, but at least I was able to identify it and explain it whereas before I had no clue, but now I can simply state this is another example of, "I think therefore you know"

3 comments:

Hey Aaron, every had 2 people with Asperger's playing the 'I think therefore you know' rule out against each other? I had. With my (ex)boyfriend (situation is unclear at this moment) to be precisely.We get in a lot of confusion, because we think very differently. He is logical minded and I'm emotionally minded. But we both have Asperger's, so we both have the tendency to assume the other will understand what we mean with something, causing a lot of misunderstandings!It's interesting and annoying at the same time in a way...

Who I Am

Hello, my name is Aaron Likens and thanks for visiting my blog. I am the Autism Ambassador for Easter Seals Midwest and also the author of the book "Finding Kansas. My passion in life is to raise the awareness and understanding of the autism spectrum through this blog as well as the many presentations I give. For myself, as much as it is a passion, it is personal because I was given the diagnosis of Asperger's when I was 20. Back then there wasn't much info and I fell into a pit of despair. I stayed there for 15 months but then I eventually discovered myself through writing and now here I am and here you are on my blog. There are well over 1,000 posts on this blog as I started blogging in March of 2010. So whether you're reading today's blog, or are skimming through stories of the past, I hope that your time here gives you a better glimps of what living life on the autism spectrum, or, "other side of the wall" is like. If you do like what you see please follow me on Facebook as that's where I share when I've written a new blog as well as announcing where I will be presenting. Please note that the opinions expressed on this blog are mine and may not be reflective of Easter Seals Midwest.

The Sunglasses Experiment

I ran a sunglasses experiment to judge why eye contact is so difficult. I wore them for about 15 days, then I switched back to my normal glasses to see how big of a difference there was. By clicking my picture you can be taken to the page that has the complete experiement all in one place.

About Me

I am the Autism Ambassador for Easter Seals Midwest and also the author of Finding Kansas: Living and Decoding Asperger's Syndrome. My passion in life is raising awareness of Autism Spectrum Disorders and to help the world understand how the mind of a person on the spectrum works. I can do this because I am on the spectrum (Asperger's).
I was diagnosed at the age of 20 and after the diagnosis a lot of my quirks made sense. I didn't understand who I was though and went into a deep depression. Through this depression though I became very keen on my inner self and I started to write. I wrote and I wrote and before I knew it I wrote a book.
5 years later I am, among other things, giving presentations to police, teachers, and parents and am now starting my quest on making the best blog possible!
The views on this blog are mine and may not be reflective of Touch Point Autism Services.
If you have any questions, or comments, or have an article idea please email me at aaron.likens@yahoo.com.